Archive for June 12th, 2009

The National Association of Former Border Patrol Officers (NAFBPO) extracts and condenses the material that follows from Mexican and Central and South American on-line media sources on a daily basis. You are free to disseminate this information, but we request that you credit NAFBPO as being the provider.

El Diario (Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua) 6/11/09

Seven persons were executed yesterday (Wed.) in Chihuahua City and Parral. Four of them were under 24 years of age. The Parral victims were in a vehicle which was the target of at least 80 shots * * * * The State of Chihuahua Attorney General held a press conference and announced that there have been 101 reported kidnappings in the state this year and that the high incidence of these crimes has now placed Mexico in the dishonorable first place in Latin America. Only 30 % of these crimes have been resolved. * * * * Hooded thugs went to the “Las Palmas” motel in Juarez at dawn today; they used assault rifles, killed five people and left a sixth one critically wounded. Elsewhere in town, three persons were shot at noon today (Thurs.); this was a car-to-car assault from a vehicle going in the opposite direction.

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Diario de Yucatan (Merida, Yucatan) 6/11/09

Mexico’s Dep’t. of Justice (“PGR”) has announced a 10 million pesos reward for information leading to the whereabouts of Francisco Serrano, Customs Administrator at the port of Veracruz, who was kidnapped earlier this month (M3 Report of 6/3/09 relates). President Calderon travelled to Veracruz and issued a warning threat to criminal elements who insist on attacking the functions of the federal government * * * * The head of Mexico’s National Immigration Agency (“INM”) in Yucatan, Hernan Vega Burgos, was charged yesterday with procuring and human trafficking. He is accused of being part of a prostitution ring and allowing the entry into Mexico of Cuban, Central and South American prostitutes to work for a woman known as “La madam Yucateca” (the Yucatan Madame). He was also said to have been receiving a monthly stipend for his actions and also had the privilege of being the first to “visit” with each newly arrived female. Some time back Vega also had a confrontation with the Public Security Dep’t. regarding some undocumented Chinese. Vega has now resigned his post.

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El Economista (Mexico City) 6/11/09

Robberies of pedestrians, with and without violence, are a headache for Mexico City police. The Distrito Federal’s Public Security Department reported that during the first four months of this year there were 1,679 such robberies with violence and 1,618 without, an average of 27 daily assaults, 14 of them violent. Local judges set 3,500 of these Distrito Federal criminals free during 2008, but of these 2,100 were later arrested again for the same cause.

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a.m. (Leon, Guanajuato) 6/11/09

The Congress of the state of Nuevo Leon (where Monterrey is located) voted 30-0 to prohibit the use or possession by police officers during duty hours of any mobile telephone, radio frequencies or any communications device other than that which might have been issued to them by competent authority for official use. The aim is to impede the police to use other devices and relay information to others about police activities.

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Cambio de Michoacán (Morelia, Michoacán) 6/11/09

Early this morning (Thur.) two police officers of Uruapan, Mich., stopped outside a taco shop in town; then vehicles arrived, thugs stepped out and began firing. One of the officers died on the spot and the second ran inside, where the gunfire also killed a teenage employee. An explosion followed, first thought to have been caused by a grenade, but the gunfire had hit a gas tank in the shop. The thugs then fled. 92 shell casings from AK47 and 26 from AR15 were found later. A number of other persons were wounded.

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El Debate (Culiacan, Sinaloa) 6/11/09

284 sacks of weed weighing a total of 2,840 kilos were found at a “narcoranch” near the township of Adolfo Lopez Mateos, not far N.E. from Culiacan. The ranch is completely surrounded by an area of agricultural activity. Mexican army personnel who entered found three containers of aviation gasoline, recently abandoned meals and even clothing hung out to dry. As is the usual case in these events, all the occupants of the ranch had managed to leave before the soldiers arrived.

Federal police stopped a northbound vehicle for speeding on the highway between San Vicente and Camalú, Baja Calif. (some 60 + miles south of Ensenada). The driver, Luis Alberto Verdugo Ramirez, gave answers which led to a search of the Jeep Cherokee he was driving. Police found a double bottom to the rear of the gas tank; inside were 19 vacuum-sealed plastic packages which turned out to contain 17 kilos 621 grams of pure heroin.

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El Universal (Mexico City) 6/11/09

Fourteen victims of assassination were reported in the state of Chihuahua “in the last hours.” (Yesterday’s report in this paper about the detention of nine Morelos state police officers was revised today; the new total is fourteen, all believed to have links with the Beltran-Leyva drug cartel.)

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Excelsior (Mexico City) 6/11/09

A Mexican air force Hercules aircraft arrived in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, and brought more than two tons of tactical gear including a high number of bullet-proof vests for military personnel presently in quarters west of the city. Part of that gear will also be sent to soldiers in Reynosa, Matamoros and some smaller towns in the area. The Mexican side of the Rio Grande’s lower valley is presently quite tense because of the presence of both military and criminal groups. * * * * U.S. Border Patrol Agents discovered yet another cross-border tunnel between Nogales, AZ and Nogales, Sonora; this one was air conditioned and had uniformly cut support beams. It reached 12 meters in the Mexican side and some 15 in the U.S. This was the 47th tunnel found between the two localities since 1995.